Open Studio: Dhiyanah Hassan, Flor Alba, Morganne Mazeika, Zachary Khoo and Zulkifli Lee

On 3 September 2017, Rimbun Dahan opened our grounds and the studios of our current resident artists to the general public. The artists featured were Dhiyanah Hassan (Malaysia), Flor Alba (Switzerland) and Zulkifli Lee (Malaysia), Zachary Khoo (Msia/USA) and Morganne Mazeika (USA). The artists opened their workspaces to showcase their works in progress and answered any questions and discussed their work and process. Below are photos of the event:

: Betty enjoying the open studio and reflecting on the rainy weather

: Dhiyanah Hassan’s Open Studio, with watercolour works, writings, and experimentations with embroidery and torn paper strips

: Visitors viewing Dhiyanah’s works; the artist standing far left

: Close up of the writing within the torn and stitched paper strips

: Work by Dhiyanah Hassan

: Works by Dhiyanah Hassan

: One of several large scale water colour paintings by Dhiyanah Hassan

: One of several large scale water colour paintings by Dhiyanah Hassan, featuring torn, painted and stitched paper strips along the bottom

: Art students brought by their lecturer Noor Mahnun (Anum), our former resident artist and arts manager, in Dhiyanah’s studio

: Flor Alba’s Open Studio, with hung sheets of painted and embroidered rice paper. Flor worked with portraits of local characters, including the Rimbun groundskeeping staff. She layered the painted rice paper to play with the transparency and how different colours and strokes came through underneath her portraits.

: Work by Flor Alba

: The reverse view of the hung works by Flor Alba

: A portrait of Putih, one of Rimbun Dahan’s cleaners, by Flor Alba

: Close up of Putih’s portrait

: Portraits of Maznah and Raslan, Rimbun Dahan’s gardeners, by Flor Alba

: Visitors viewing Flor’s works

: Visitors viewing Flor’s works

: Flor (center) in her open studio

: Flor explaining her works and materials to a visitor

: Zulkifli Lee’s studio before the visitors arrived. Zul has been industrious throughout his eight months so far in residency, working on large scale pieces and participating in many group exhibitions in local galleries and institutions. He is working towards his first solo exhibition, which will be held at Rimbun Dahan to mark the end of his residency, in end of November.

: Zul has been working with natural materials such as rocks and sand and so his colour pallette reflects the colours prevalent in Rimbun Dahan, captured on textured canvases.

: A corner of Zul’s studio showcasing his tools and materials.

: Visitors entering Zulkifli Lee’s studio

: Zul speaking to visitors and students in his open studio

: Angela Hijjas speaking to student visitors

: Morganne Mazeika and Zach Khoo presented a 5 minute performance in the dance studio (once every half hour) – a culmination of the work they’ve compiled over their first week in residency. The working title is “2+3”

: This is the first time Morganne and Zach have been able to work in the same space after a year of working long distance from separate states

: Their work is based on the theme of communication. At their open studio, they spoke about collaborating long distance by sending each other videos of themselves dancing, and how to now translate that exchange through verbal and non-verbal communication when in the same physical space.